Mark Purdy: Sharks taking up residence in Red Wings’ heads

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San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski (8) fights for the puck against Detroit Red Wings Brad Stuart (23) in the second period in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals at HP Pavilion San Jose , Calif. on Sunday, May 01, 2011. (Josie Lepe/San Jose Mercury News)

San Jose Sharks Ben Eager (55) fights against Detroit Redwings Todd Bertuzzi (44) in the Redwings bench in the second period in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Sunday, May 1, 2011. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)

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San Jose Sharks Logan Couture (39) sprays Detroit Redwings goaltender Jimmy Howard (35) after Howard made a save in the first period in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Sunday, May 1, 2011. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)

San Jose Sharks Ian White (9) is congratulated by San Jose Sharks Ryan Clowe (29) and teammates after scoring the first goal of the game against the Detroit Redwings in the first period in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Sunday, May 1, 2011. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)

If the Sharks are not in the heads of the Detroit Red Wings right now, you could fool the HP Pavilion scoreboard.

Yet when the final horn sounded there Sunday afternoon, Patrick Marleau wanted everyone to know that the Sharks are not overconfident against the Wings.

“There’s no time for that,” Marleau said. “They’re a great team. Any game in this series is not easily won.”

Perhaps not. But the only two games have been won by the Sharks. Sunday, the score was 2-1. But more significantly, did you notice Detroit’s overall demeanor throughout the afternoon?

If not, let’s review: The Red Wings continued to take penalties that made no sense, were drawn into scrums that served no purpose and had their own coach suggesting afterward that maybe they “just weren’t good enough.” These are classic signs of a mentally ﻿bumfuzzled team.

Shocking? A little bit. Before the series began, common wisdom was that last year’s five-game Sharks playoff victory over Detroit didn’t matter. It was in the past. It had no relation to this year.

Turns out the common wisdom was wrong. Not completely wrong, mind you. But a good chunk of wrong.

Last year’s series result did matter. And it still matters. The Sharks learned last spring that they can hang with the Red Wings even at their most motivated. They know that while the two teams are very evenly matched and the games are always going to be tight, Detroit is no indomitable force. The Red Wings wear a flying tire on their chest, not a Superman logo.

Sunday’s result was the Wings’ fifth straight playoff defeat at HP Pavilion, including three losses last spring. That sort of streak has not been a part of the official Stanley Cup tournament guidebook for the NHL’s most successful and respected team of the past 20 years.

In fact, the last time Detroit dropped five consecutive playoff games in an opposing team’s building, that building was the Chicago Stadium. Which is now demolished. The Red Wings lost five straight in the postseason there from 1989-92. Since then, they have never found an enemy rink to be so consistently confounding. Until now.

“You’ve got to look at the scores of those games, though,” pointed out Joe Thornton, performing his Sharks captain duties by trying to squash any talk of a trend that is definitely a trend.

“Out of the seven playoff games we’ve played against Detroit these last two years,” Thornton said, “six have been one-goal games. They could have gone either way.”

They are going the Sharks’ way, though, because the Sharks keep doing enough good stuff on a consistent basis.

Everyone knew that the Red Wings were a better team than the one that showed up for Friday night’s series opener. But even on Sunday, when that better Detroit team finally made an appearance, the Sharks still were the faster, stronger and crisper outfit for longer stretches. The Sharks also showed the better “… um, what’s the right term?

“Battle-ability,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said.

There you go. Battle-ability.

In every hockey game, there are probably, what, a hundred-plus small skirmishes for the puck? The Sharks won more of them Sunday. ﻿It was most apparent during the game’s most crucial early segment — a four-minute penalty kill in the first period after Benn Ferriero was called for high sticking.

The Sharks were ahead 1-0 at the time. But the four minutes of a five-on-four advantage gave the Red Wings a perfect opportunity to tie the score and take back momentum.

Do you know how many shots Detroit put on net during those four minutes? One. Another ticked slightly off a post. Otherwise, the Sharks won the battle-ability battle. They kept clearing the puck, caused one offside penalty, even took a short-handed shot on goal. They used 12 players and made seven changes of penalty-kill units. Thornton, Marleau, Jason Demers and Marc-Edouard Vlasic each took three separate shifts during the long kill.

Yes, Sharks goalie Antti Niemi was rock solid and occasionally fabulous Sunday, especially when he stopped a one-on-one breakaway attempt by Detroit’s Darren Helm. But throughout that early four-minute power play, Niemi’s teammates did the heavy lifting — and blocking and puck-seizing. It set a tone. By the second period, Detroit was showing visible signs of frustration.

“Our second period was pretty good,” Thornton conceded. “We just got after it and stayed after it and spent a lot of time in their end. That’s what we all talked about before — the team that spends more time in the other guy’s end is going to win the game.”

Of course, you can’t keep the Wings’ elite Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg off the score sheet forever. After the Sharks took a 2-0 lead, the Red Wings pulled to within 2-1 on a power-play goal by Zetterberg with 6:02 remaining in the third period. But this simply gave the Sharks another battle-ability challenge.

During those final six minutes, it seemed as if Datsyuk and Zetterberg were on the ice for at least 5 minutes and 50 seconds. And somewhere along the way, Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom clanged the puck off a post. But no damage was done. Thornton took the puck away from Zetterberg once on the sideboards. Sharks defensemen blocked shots.

McLellan, when asked to cite one defensive highlight, mentioned the game’s last faceoff, in the Detroit zone with 13 seconds left. Thornton won the draw against Datsyuk by slapping the puck toward the rear boards, where it was controlled by Vlasic. He whipped it behind the net around the sideboards, where Marleau gave the puck a bump over the blue line. Battle won.

There’s absolutely no reason for overconfidence. Marleau can remember the 2006 series when the Sharks beat Edmonton in the first two games at HP Pavilion and then lost four straight.

Could that happen again? Detroit is certainly capable of a comeback. ﻿It says here that the series will still go seven games. But if so, the seventh game is at The Tank. The Red Wings might say they aren’t thinking at all about that. It would be interesting to check their brain scans for confirmation.

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